Made in Vancouver

Yeah, that’s an actual sentence I said out loud to my girlfriend as our Air Canada flight neared Vancouver, our destination. Our recent week-long vacation was my first visit to the West Coast, and I may have been a little overexcited to take part in everything Beautiful B.C. had to offer: laid-back people, incredible vistas and, of course, the city’s signature style. I knew to expect a mix of street-inspired silhouettes and high-fashion activewear, but little could prepare me for the sheer number of yoga stores along Kitsilano Beach’s West 4th Avenue and the host of ridiculously well-curated shops in Gastown.

One place that fits both descriptions was Luluelemon Lab, a shop stocked with experimental one-off pieces handmade by Lululemon’s designers. According to the stylist helping me, Nik, I was one of the first guys to pull a multi-paneled slocan tank off the rack. I teamed it with a pair of black sparwood shorts featuring oversize mesh pockets. Owing to the Lab’s versatile aesthetic, I felt I had the YVR look locked down whether I was completing a sweaty bicycle circuit of the Stanley Park seawall with Jenna or cooling down with craft brews at Steamworks Brewery.

I think we were rounding the bend near Siwash Rock when when it hit me: I never want to go back to Toronto. I’m sure I won’t be the last man to leave his heart out west.